Confused? Shocked? Angry? Excited? Funny? Didn't Give a damn at all?,,,What?

I was like "Oooh weeeh,,this negro is causing one helluva mess" and he sho nuff did. I heard many DJs and radio personalities complain about this,,,seems that Paul(or whoever he is) hit the right nerve

I still can't see the diss against Prince(many people say this but I don't feel there's a diss) however, it was a hard-slap-on the face calling 3/4 of MCs sounding like Nas,,that was harsh.

But on the humble? I enjoy that liner notes everytime I read it, very thoughtful, deep and honest.


Here goes the,,,
[This message was edited Sun Jun 8 14:47:02 PDT 2003 by Harlepolis]

Huh? What LP

Voodoo, by d'Angelo.

I do not regard it a diss, actually.

By the way, shouldn't you put this in another forum?

CAMILLE4U said:

D'Angelo's "Voodoo"

deMatthijs said:

Nope, I'm posting it in the right forum between the right people

Harlepolis said:

I am referring to the Music: Non-Prince forum...
You don't have leave the .org

deMatthijs said:

Yeah I know what you mean sweetie and I still think its the RIGHT place becoz I want other orgers to explain the so called Prince-diss

My first reaction was that the liner notes were of passing interest but not exactly ground-breaking. I wasn't particularly confused or angry or shocked or excited by them, and I didn't hurt my sides laughing at them or along with them. And i haven't changed my mind, having reread them occasionally since.

Harlepolis said:

Hey Harle, could you post them? I don't remember what they said as I gave this CD away.

stymie said:

recorded at electric lady land, nyc

I. there are sounds that cannot be heard with city ears. there is a sense of understanding that grows on the hillsides of virginia, where a grandfather s church lights the night with it's soul-cleansing fires. there are choirs that sing as one. and there is one that has learned to sing. do you remember songs, my friends? i am not speaking of loops and hooks. one could write an entire history of the loops of nooses and hooks of branches from which our ancestors once hung. and that history would lead us down dirt roads that would lead us to the very hillsides of virginia, where our story begins. yes, southern trees do bear strange fruit. and the fruit, as they say, never falls to far from the tree. but the trees have a memory of their own and when the wind blows they sing.

let angel's wings deliver
the voice that sings of rivers (Oshun)
that will lead us to the ocean
so that we may see
that shining sea (Yemaja)


II. to be the son of a preacher man was once african american cultural royalty. as traditional churches have grown empty many of us have been left to wander these haunted castles like that displaced prince of denmark, contemplating the paths of our mothers: that electric lady that landed us here in the first place. the aquarian age is a matriarchal age. and if we are to exist as men in this new world many of us must learn to embrace and nurture that which is feminine with all of our hearts (he-art). but is there any room for artistry in hiphops decadent man-sion? have we walked our timberlands soleless...soul-less? when you pour that wine on the ground in that video shoot that has become your life will you be ready to hear the voice that pours from the bottle to enibriate the very ground on which we walk? it is libations such as these that are the start of every voodoo ceremony. and let us not forget that that is why we have come.

like the rain to the dirt
from the vine to the wine
from the alpha of creation

we have come in the name of jimi, sly, marvin, stevie, all artists formerly known as spirits and all spirits formerly known as stars. we have come in the tradition of burning bushes, burning ghettos, burning splifs, and the ever-burning candles of our bedrooms and silent chambers. we have come bearing instruments and our voices: falsetto and baritone, percussion and horns. we have come adorned in the apparel of the annointed: leather and feathers, jeans and t-shirts, linen and cashmere, and even polyester. we have come to seduce and serenade the night and the powers of darkness. we speak of darkness, not as ignorance, but as the unknown and the mysteries of the unseen.

III.

cemetaries
are our only
tended gardens

we tend to die

the moon is full. the tide is risen. the future is blossoming around us. yet, the feilds of our destiny have been gardens untended. over-grown, and malnourished. we have have come to cultivate this garden. we are the cultivators of a culture.

there are certain lotuses that wil only bloom on the south saturn delta. no other marsh can match. there are certain albums that can only be recorded in the purple hazed shrines of our electric ancestors. no other bait will catch... their attention. and now, moreso than ever, we need the attention of our ancestors so that they may lead us through the elaborate labrynths of our karma into aquarious. it has been said that if one wishes to bring about change they must sing it into existence. thus, sings D'Angelo.

IV. envision this: a lone man in a haunted room surrounded by glowing instruments. what sounds are evoked from a room where jimi once slept? what are the rewards of those who tend to their God-given talents as they would have the creator tend to their spirits and daily lives? what happens when the artist becomes the conjur man?

these are questions that seem to be null and void in the face of all the glitter and glamour that has dominated most successful black artistry of recent years. we seem to be more preoccupied with cultivating our bank acoounts than cultivating our crafts. nowadays, i find my peers more inspired by an artists business tactics than their artistry. in fact, we do not seem to mind an artistry that suffers in the face of seemingly good business. more artists seem to yearn to own their own labels, etc., than they seem to yearn to master their crafts. no, we cannot allow any more Bessie Smiths to occur, but once an artist owns their publishing the question then becomes, what are you going to publish? ofcourse, i am using the word artist loosely. i, personally, believe in an art as it exists in the context of the phrase thou art God . in this phrase, art is the word that connects the individual (thou) to their higher self (God) or to that which is universal. using such a standard most emcees might become embarrassed. woah! why am i attacking hip hop? cause i'm a lyricist, son. a lyricist that has had to serve as his own inspiration when most of my peers seem to idolize Donald Trump more than Sly Stone, when they don t seem to realize that Jimi Hendrix was and is a sonic Bill Gates. oh, shit. don't make me call no names.

now, you may ask, well what does this have to do with D'Angelo? my answer: inspiration. here is a peer that is focused wholly on his craft and has given himself the challenge of bettering himself. i mean really, D could have come out with any ol follow up album after Brown Sugar dropped so that he could double his sales why he's still hot. you know, an album that sounds just like Brown Sugar, uses all the same formulas, so that audiences don t have to think... or grow, they just keep liking the same shit. he could even sample songs that you're already familiar with so that you don t have to go through the hard work of getting used to a new melody or bass line. y'all don't hear me.

you might respond, lyrics? yo, i can't even understand half the shit that D'Angelo be saying. that nigga sounds like Bobby McFerrin on opium. and i'd say: you're right. neither can i. but i am drawn to figure out what it is that he s saying. his vocal collaging intrigues me. or you might say, but his shit don't sound all that original, he just sounds like he's trying to be Prince or some shit . and i'd say, maybe you're right. at times he does. we often study the breathing techniques of our inspirations (inspire means to breathe in or to make breathe, inhale). and that's also true for most of you emcees. i mean don't 3/4's of y'all niggas sound like Nas? the difference is that D'Angelo has allowed influence to simply take its place among his own intuitive artistry. he works to find his own voice within his many influences. i'd pay to see Prince's face as he listens to this album (Ameer, ? of the Roots, said that the Artist lets Black people call him Prince). do you think he'd feel robbed or inspired? my opinion, over the years, as i've sat in countless conversations about why it is that the Artist puts out half the shit he does (you know the half i'm talking about) is because he lacks any new inspiration. once again an artist is faced with the reality of having to serve as their own inspiration after they have worn out all of their Sly, Jimi, Marvin, Stevie (i do not mean to ignore the many inspirational female singers, i'm just making a point as regards this male vocalist)...

V. damn, is there any way to speak of that which is feminine without having masculinity right in the middle of it? female. woman. unless, of course, these words came first and we later derived male and man from them. somehow, i doubt that. we need a new language to go along with this new age. and a new music.

thus, we have come. as we prepare to journey, we must decide which elements of our sonic past we are going to pack to carry with us into this new day, this new sound. the distilled ambiance of an Al Green song, the ambiguous sexual majesty of a Prince song, the creative genius of Stevie Wonder... D'Angelo has made his choices, carefully weaving them into his character, and has courageously stepped into the void bearing these sonic offerings to be delivered to the beckoning goddess of the new age.

i do not wish to overly dissect this album. it's true dissection occurs in how it seeps into your life shapes your moments. what you were doing when you realized he was saying this or that? how it played softly in the background when you first saw him or her. how you kept it on repeat on that special night. you'll see. these songs are incantations, testaments of artistry, confessions of an aquarious as he steps into his own.

Copyright Saul Williams

Visit his website at:

http://www.americanrecord...lwilliams/

The liner notes can be found under 'Writings'